Inevitable; the album is exactly how you would have imagined. Brimming with massive choruses, glorified in slick production and with just enough lyrical nous to keep their aficionados interested. That’s not a bad way to approach the follow up to a similar record that sold well over 1.5 million copies. Fall Out Boy have the recipe for success and with Folie à Deux, will remain the commercial leaders in pop-punk. They know their target market and pitch perfectly. Opener, ‘Disloyal Order of Water Buffalos’ strikes an appropriate vain. ‘Imperfect boys, with their perfect ploys/Nobody wants to hear you sing about tragedy,’ Fall Out Boy are aware of the age old critique of pop-punk bands. Beyond a certain age you shouldn’t sing bitter diatribes against ‘girls’. No-one wants to hear a bunch of rich rock stars whining about how insecure they are. However in Fall Out Boy’s case I argue the opposite, they have built a career on it. Indeed their coy approach to the issue is a key contributor to their success. With one hand acknowledging the criticism, they carry on regardless and the song itself is remains a broken love song, ‘I’m a loose bolt of a complete machine/What a match, I’m half-doomed and you’re semi-sweet’. They are the rarest of the rare, a group of Americans understand the concept of irony. However, there is nothing more derogatory than appreciating the band for their irony. There are too many gloriously catchy pop songs resident in the album for that. ‘(Coffee’s for Closers)’ and ’Tiffany Blews’ standout in particular . Admittedly it’s hard to get over the self-indulgence of ‘What a Catch, Donnie’. A track featuring the lyrics, ‘They say the captain goes down with his ship/So when the world ends, will God go down with it,’ and a bevy of guests [including Elvis Costello] singing lyrics from old fan favourites. But before condemning Fall Out Boy, can you imagine where music would be without teenage poetry and hero-worship? It’s all part of the show.
Lloydi